Advancing Social Entrepreneurship: Recommendations for Policy Makers and Government Agencies

By Andrew M. Wolk, Root Cause/MIT, co-published with The Aspen Institute

This just-released report provides 13 recommendations and accompanying models to be used as tools by government leaders who are committed to spurring and supporting social innovation and entrepreneurship. A sampling of these recommendations and models includes:

• Create the structure for a public-private social innovation fund (Models: Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) and Venture Philanthropy/Venture Capital)
• Explore tax structure changes to enable new organizational forms (Model: North Carolina's L3C)

Social Entrepreneurship and Government: A New Breed of Entrepreneurs Developing Solutions to Social Problems

A chapter in The Small Business Economy: A Report to the President
Published by The Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy, 2007
By Andrew M. Wolk, Root Cause/MIT

This report offers a comprehensive introduction for city, state, and federal government officials to the field of social entrepreneurship and the work to date. It incorporates insights from experts in the field and case studies of eight successful social-entrepreneurial initiatives to address three questions:

1. What is social entrepreneurship?
2. How does social entrepreneurship help government benefit Americans?
3. How is government currently supporting social-entrepreneurial initiatives?

Louisiana Office of Social Entrepreneurship

Copyright Root Cause Public Innovators

This powerpoint presentation outlines the mission, model, strategies, and vision of the nation's first Office of Social Entrepreneurship.

Mobilizing Change: 10 Nonprofit Policy Proposals to Strengthen U.S. Communities

The Aspen Institute Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy Program

This set of proposals provides a starting point for a bi-partisan commission to focus on maximizing the relationship between government and civil society. It includes several of Public Innovators' recommendations and references Advancing Social Entrepreneurship, our joint publication with the Aspen Institute. 

Innovating the White House, Stanford Social Innovation Review

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By Michele Jolin, Center for American Progress

An article outlining strategies for the next president of the United States to spur social entrepreneurship.

Investing in Social Entrepreneurship and Fostering Social Innovation

By Michele Jolin, Center for American Progress

This paper identifies some of the key ways in which policymakers can support the growth and spread of innovative non-profit solutions, and offers some policy guidelines and a framework that the Center for American Progress intends to explore and expand during 2008. It argues that government can do more to expand the impact of the most successful social entrepreneurial models and to create a

pipeline of future entrepreneurial efforts in the critical non-profit sector.

Business Planning for Enduring Social Impact: A Social-Entrepreneurial Approach to Solving Social Problems

A Root Cause How-to Guide
By Andrew Wolk, Root Cause/MIT and Kelley Kreitz, Root Cause

An introduction to business planning, drawing on Root Cause's consulting engagements with dozens of organizations and work with its own social enterprises.